The police have said they have launched no investigation into a rape allegation by a young Amerindian woman who says that she was drugged and raped recently in Mahdia but instead are investigating assault causing actually bodily harm.
Commander of F Divi-sion Courtney Ramsey revealed that the police have since forwarded the file to the Chambers of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) which has advised that one man be charged with assault causing actual bodily harm.
Apart from this the Guyana Human Rights Authority (GHRA) has also said that the victim was not examined medically at the Mahdia Hospital because no rape kit was available.
The Sunday Stabroek has confirmed that the file was indeed sent to the DPP’s office and has been returned to the police. The commander has said based on the statement given to the police no allegation of rape was made. All of this happened after the victim had given a further statement to an officer at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Eve Leary.
However, the victim, whose horrific ordeal was published in this newspaper, has denied that she never alleged rape when she gave the police in Mahdia a statement hours after the all-night ordeal. She accused the police officer who took the statement from her as being hostile and unprofessional which made her afraid, and “I just went along with what he say…” The woman is suspected of having been drugged, as hours after the ordeal she had to be rushed to the hospital after she fell unconscious. She had related to this newspaper that during one of the assaults she knew what was happening but was unable to stop her attacker, while she fought off a second who was attempting to sodomize her and who inflicted a number of injuries on her body.
“I read this thing in the newspaper the police not investigating any rape allegation. The woman never said she was raped she said she had sex with some boyfriend or something like that, and that when he left the room another man come in and he like assault her bite she up on her body…” Commander Ramsey told this newspaper.
He made it clear that the victim said that she was drinking Red Bull and Hensley all night and that she said she was drunk.
Told of what the commander had said the victim expressed shock and she enquired about the further statement that she had given to the police at CID Headquarters after she had travelled from Mahdia. Asked about this second statement Commander Ramsey said he was unaware that this took place. The second statement was taken after President of the Guyana Women Miners Organisa-tion (GWMO) Simona Broomes facilitated a trip to the CID Headquarters through Crime Chief Leslie James. Contacted James said he did not meet with the victim and her friend but that he could recall two women giving a statement to a police officer. He could give no further update on the investigation and a promise to provide information later remained unfulfilled.
Remembering her ordeal with the police officer who took the statement the victim said she did inform the officer that she was unable to fight off the first man who allegedly raped her.
“I tell he that he had sex with me yea, but is not like I tell he to but I couldn’t do anything, like I know what happening but like I can’t help meself,” the distraught woman said.
It is believed that based on this the officer indicated in the statement that the young woman consented to the sexual encounter.
She further told the Sunday Stabroek that as she was attempting to tell the officer that the second man attempted to rape her anally he brusquely brushed her aside.
“I tell he how the man was fighting to have sex with me from my anal and that I feel he go in lil bit but not all the way and he just tell me ‘the medical don’t show that and forget about that.’ After he tell me duh I just lef it like duh because I say I coming to Georgetown and talk to bigger people,” the victim said.
She said now that the police have apparently concluded their investigation without looking into the rape allegations and the suspicion that she was drugged she feels “frustrated.”
“I just feel frustration and I angry and helpless and everything because how they could say I not tell them I get rape,” the victim said.
She is still calling for justice but now feels that the perpetrators of the horrible crime would never be brought before the courts.
‘Not surprised’
And GWMO President Broomes when contacted told this newspaper that she is not surprised that there seems to be an attempt “to cover up this matter.”
“I am not surprised because I am aware of the kind of influence that the men involved have in Mahdia,” an angry Broomes said.
She said after she was told what was in the statement the victim reportedly gave to the police at Mahdia she had attempted to have a meeting with the victim and her friend and the commander, but this fell through owing to unforeseen circumstances on both sides.
She also questioned what happened to the statement taken at the CID Headquarters and what its purpose was since it apparently was not handed over to the ranks investigating the incident.
“And I must tell you that I was impressed with the manner in which the police at Eve Leary took the
statement; she was very professional and seemed to be mindful of the traumatic experience the victim had,” Broomes said.
The GWMO president once again bemoaned the plight of young women in the interior and pointed to the fact that it was the GWMO which funded the victim and her friend’s trip to the city.
“We are not funded but after hearing about the story and that they wanted to come to Georgetown to have a better investigation we could not say no. Even the food they eat when coming down they had to borrow money from the bus driver to buy it and we had to repay the driver when he come,” Broomes said.
She approached the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs to see what assistance could be offered to the young women as they had no money, but no help was forthcoming.
“Right now they are out of money and they are not hopeful of any justice. Tell me what I must tell this rape victim,” Broomes asked as she bemoaned the fact that the system that is supposed to help victims is not helping.
“Is like she get raped by three men and the system is a fourth man raping her,” she commented.
‘Unresponsive’
Meantime, the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) in a statement has said that information reaching the association underlines how unresponsive the medical and legal systems remain to survivors of sexual assault.
“Although the victim was carried unconscious into the hospital by a co-worker, with extensive bites and bruising about her body, she was examined only for physical assault because ‘no rape kit was available,’” the GHRA said in its statement.
It said that no anti-HIV prophylactic was administered, nor the victim provided with the STI-preventative medicine normally prescribed in cases of sexual assault. According to the statement the victim was only given painkillers and discharged the following morning.
“But for the courageous initiative of a friend who took cell photos of her battered colleague, despite police warnings to desist, no evidence of what she underwent would be available,” the statement said.
The GHRA pointed out that as part of the reforms ushered in by the Sexual Offences Act (2010) rape kits were introduced into medical examinations of persons alleging sexual violence. The sealed kit is supposed to be made available by the hospital when the police bring the victim and opened in the presence of the police officer.
The GHRA further said that while the absence of a rape kit should not preclude medical personnel performing a thorough examination of the victim, it understands that its absence was used as the reason for not examining the victim for sexual assault in Mahdia, which is astonishing.
The GHRA also pointed to the behaviour of police rank which it said was callous and unprofessional. “His refusal to include in the statement allegations of sodomy flatly violates the rule for taking statements. Despite her insistence, this part of her statement remained excluded. The victim signed the statement because, ‘in my own mind I had decided to go to Georgetown to take up the matter there,’” the release said.
The GHRA stated that such lack of confidence in the GPF was aggravated in this case by the “obvious familiarity between the hotel personnel who were seen in the station precincts and the police ranks responsible for the case.”
The GHRA called on CID, which it said has taken control of this case, “to vigorously pursue the perpetrators of this crime.” It said that police action on this case must also extend to an investigation by the Office of Professional Responsibility of the GPF into the unprofessional behaviour of the ranks in Mahdia.
“The GHRA will be providing the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and the OPR with statements supporting the allegations made in respect of this case and will continue to monitor developments,” the release said.
Based on what the young woman related, she was drugged while she and her co-workers were celebrating a birthday on the premises of the hotel and bar where she was employed. Thereafter, she said, she was led into a room at the hotel by a son of the owner and he took advantage of her. She passed out and woke up later to find another man, the brother-in-law of the owner, attempting to sodomise her and she fought. She claimed that a third man, the security guard of the premises, who is employed by the owner of the building, also took advantage of her and she passed out once again.
The woman, who hails from a small Amerindian village in Region Eight and who had been employed by the business for almost a year, had recounted that when she woke up in the morning, she told one of the other employees what had happened to her. She said the employee told her to have a bath and promised that she would help her to perform her duties as she was in no condition to function. She became unconscious and had to be rushed to the hospital.
She said she was in a lot of pain and believes that she was beaten during the sexual assaults. She fell unconscious once again and was taken to the Mahdia Hospital, where she was admitted. She later reported the attacks to the police.
